I work in the natural gas utility world and gas fireplaces and fire pits are terribly inefficient. Improper venting and death by CO2 is no joke as well.

That being said i quite appreciate the humor and clever problem solving to bring his concept into reality. I would hope that anyone that thinks this is a great idea, please problem solve proper venting first.

This is always something that’s annoyed me.We’ve known how to make efficient fireplaces for literally centuries. Benjamin Franklin mad a pretty good one and released it to the world for everyone to use. The construction industry insists that fireplaces are just for looking pretty and wasting energy, though…

I’m sure its great for the bottom line for a utility because people use way too much gas, but proper ventilation and maintenance is important which most commercial and residential customers don’t care too much on.

And most gas appliances are really quite efficient and can be considered green to a certain point when compared to electric appliances. However gas pits and fireplaces are terribly wasteful, customers like to have them though because it’s considered a luxury. I’ve had a commercial customer pay something like 20k for us to run a line for a fire pit, the rest of his building was electric.

I work in the natural gas utility world and gas fireplaces and fire pits are terribly inefficient. Improper venting and death by CO2 is no joke as well.

Yeah, and don’t forget lung illnesses, mold and window rot! The amount of water released by an unvented gas burner is pretty staggering, and it condenses on windows and other surfaces causing paint failure, mold, and rot throughout the home. And high humidity also increases the lethal potential of lung diseases like pneumonia.

As for efficiency, I was going to install a gas burner in my fireplace until I did about five minutes of research on the economics of it. I installed a wood burning insert instead and I’ve been very happy with that. (Although admittedly I enjoy chopping wood.)